Intraoperative Cytological Diagnosis of Ovarian Cancer

Abstract

Ovarian cancer is one of the three most common malignant tumors in the female reproductive system. It has an insidious onset with a difficult early diagnosis. In approximately 70% of all cases of ovarian cancer, the disease is not diagnosed before reaching an advanced stage. The 5-year survival rate is associated with ovarian cancer staging. Intraoperative cytology is a method of intraoperative consultation with the help of cytology smears. Histopathology is the gold standard in the diagnosis of resected specimens. Imprint cytology offers the advantage of viewing the gross, giving serial cuts, taking multiple representative samples and most importantly, being inexpensive and logistically un-demanding. This study was conducted on 100 patients with ovarian tumors diagnosed by clinical, ultrasound and histopathological examination in Gyne-oncology unit in El Shatby Maternity University Hospital. All 100 cases had ovarian mass diagnosis confirmed through the collection and interpretation of intraoperative findings and histopathological report. The sensitivity of imprint cytology in the present study was 88.10% and specificity of 82.82% with a positive predictive value of 82.22% and a negative predictive value of 87.80%. Imprint cytology is an excellent method of giving a quick and reliable diagnosis; cytology plays an important role by guiding the surgeon within a short period of time. It is a preferred method for investigation due to sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and outcome of the patient and because it is simple and inexpensive. The cytology preparations were helpful in supporting the histological diagnoses. However, imprint cytology may not be very reliable in cases of borderline epithelial tumors.